In The Perinatal Nurse's Guide to Avoiding a Lawsuit, Pat Connors shares her 10 years of experience and the expertise she acquired working as a legal nurse consultant and nurse expert. Working with both plaintiff and defense attorneys, combined with 40 years as a perinatal nurse, affords her a unique ability to educate perinatal nurses as to factors that might lead them to become involved in the dreaded LAWSUIT. At one time, physicians were considered the "captain of the ship" and nurses were expected to do little more than take and follow orders. Today's nurses, well educated, autonomous and expected to possess critical thinking skills, now often find themselves responsible for many tasks once assigned to physicians. The complexity of maternal-child nursing has placed higher demands for assessment and vigilance. This book targets those areas that make perinatal nurses vulnerable to and prime targets for a lawsuit. The Perinatal Nurse's Guide to Avoiding a Lawsuit is replete with case studies and resources highlighting areas of litigation for which perinatal nurses are at greatest risk and addresses strategies to reduce those risks.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

A study of self-reported and biochemically tested marijuana use among pregnant women in California found that marijuana use during pregnancy was more common among younger women, with rates as high as 22 percent of pregnant adolescents and 19 percent of pregnant young adults (ages 19-24) screening positive for marijuana use.3 To assist clinicians and others in raising awareness of the known and potential harms of marijuana use during pregnancy, this guide focuses on the growing body of evidence related to maternal marijuana use. The evidence from population-based data on potential harms to newborns is mixed. Some studies rely on selfreported data, which can underestimate the proportion of women who are using marijuana and skew study findings. Other factors, such as concurrent substance use, stress, socioeconomic status, and others, can influence the baby's health.

Clinical Case Studies for the Family Nurse Practitioner is a key resource for advanced practice nurses and graduate students seeking to test their skills in assessing, diagnosing, and managing cases in family and primary care. Composed of more than 70 cases ranging from common to unique, the book compiles years of experience from experts in the field. It is organized chronologically, presenting cases from neonatal to geriatric care in a standard approach built on the SOAP format. This includes differential diagnosis and a series of critical thinking questions ideal for self-assessment or classroom use.

Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine

Take an evidence-based approach to leadership. Learn the skills you need to lead and succeed in the dynamic healthcare environments in which you will practice. From leadership and management theories through their application, you’ll develop the core competences you need to provide and manage care of the highest quality to your patients. You’ll also be prepared for the initiatives that are transforming the delivery and cost effectiveness of health care today.